Among the posh crowd who summer in the Hamptons, on Long Island, is one of Israel’s most prominent rabbis, Yoshiyahu Pinto. Pinto heads up Shuva Israel, an international network of charities, yeshivas and other religious institutions. In August 2008 and in April 2009 he stayed at rented accommodations at 29 Lily Pond Lane, for which his nonprofit organization paid $70,000 and $40,000, respectively. The second stay was just one week.
Why did a nonprofit dedicated to religious study pay to rent a home in the Hamptons for its head? That’s just one of many questions that Pinto’s critics in Israel and the United States are asking. Pinto’s lifestyle does not suit a rabbi, certainly not one who heads a charity, they say.
